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Firstly, apologies for the quality of the photos. It was my first time using a camera in a restaurant, I obviously need a little practice...
We arrived on a balmy Friday evening and were seated on their charming outdoor terrace while we read the menus. There are two tasting menus: "Sustraiak" and "Naturan" but they were happy to allow us to mix and match, and even to add dishes from the a la carte. We were served the ceramic potatoes with aioli with our champagne. A cute visual but not particularly exciting.
A sea sac (sea urchin) floating in a toasted garlic broth with nori: I didn't get a picture, but Carendt242 has one above. Good but flavours were a little muted. Interesting serving bowl set in pebbles, we were instructed to cup the bowl in our hands in order to experience the feel of the spiritual river (or some such tosh...)
King crab marinated in olive oil, bathed in gelatinous chicken broth and spiced with toasted buckwheat: Excellent dish, the crab had a gorgeous soft texture and the flavours were all clear and distinct.
In two services: Quinoa sand and sea lettuce with mushrooms and coastal herbs: The first serving was rather bland with gritty texture.
The addition of the broth greatly improved matters. Not sure I really "got" this dish. Would have liked to discuss it with the chef.
Crushed potatoes, broken eggs and vegetable coal. Garlic "casein" dressing: Amazingly rich, vivid yellow egg yolks encased the potato. Gorgeous but I didn't think the vegetable coal (taro I think) a particularly suitable accompaniment given that it is also extremely starchy.
Salad of Swiss Chard, finely sliced baby cuttlefish and potatoes "Pizarra". Simple dressing and five sesame seeds: Good but the charred potatoes Pizarra were very similar to the vegetable coal in the previous dish. With the ceramic potatoes to start, followed by these two dishes, we felt we had too much potato/starch at this stage. Our own fault, however, as we added the potato and egg dish to the menu.
Sauteed red mullet fillets. Savoury confit of rockfish and saffron. Grains of grey salt. Lovely piece of fish but the confit was a little bitter and had an extremely strong saffron taste.
Roasted foie gras with savoury rosemary honey and sautéed mini leeks: Great dish. Excellent quality foie, perfectly cooked. The savoury rosemary "honey" is made from boiling cod skin and combining the resulting goop with rosemary. It exactly replicates the texture of honey but without any sweetness. Similar mental trickery to savoury ice creams.
Roast Iberian Pork, red curry paste and plump salad leaves:
I enjoyed this. Good quality pork, the muted curry flavour was deliberate to my mind and allowed all of the components to shine.
Lamb Trotter braised in a salted toffee. Fresh cream and lactose: Extremely rich and fatty. I felt it made a good transition towards desert but not everyone liked it.
Select Euskalherria cheeses:
Superb. Probably the best cheese course that I've had. So much thought has gone into picking a suitable accompaniment for each cheese. The honeycomb with the blue cheese was particularly inspired.
Caramelized French Toast enriched with cream and egg yolk. With handmade raw milk and fig ice cream: Fantastic, crisp caramelized outside yielding to a rich, eggy, almost molten interior.
Segments of red peach, almond essence and soup of white flowers:
Very pretty and refreshing but a a comedown after the last two courses.
We allowed the somellier to choose wines for us which she did to great effect (and at a ridiculously cheap price). Most interestingly, she served Hoegaarden (a Belgian weiss beer) with the egg and potato dish.
No petit fours with our coffee which was surprising. We finished with huge pours of Chartreuse Tarragona. It was the special reserve centenary bottling (from 1993 I believe). Absolutely glorious. A completely different drink to regular Chartreuse.
We then went on a tour of the kitchen. 30 chefs working in a absolutely huge, ultra-modern room, about the size of some London restaurants. Simply could not be replicated with big city rents.
The service was first rate all night, great maitre d', their friendly approach was exemplified by one of our waiters giving us a lift back into San Sebastian when our taxi failed to show.
Overall, this was a great meal. Thought-provoking at times but Aduriz certainly does not sacrifice deliciousness at the altar of gastronomic advancement. A close second to Michel Bras for my meal of the year so far but, on this evidence, clearly a notch below The Fat Duck.
